CV NEWS FEED // Coadjutor Archbishop Christopher Coyne of the Diocese of Hartford recently stated that “biology is biology” in light of the Vatican’s recent declaration condemning “gender theory” and LGBT lifestyles.
Coyne, who is expected to succeed current Archbishop Leonard Paul Blair soon, told Connecticut Public in a recent interview that gender is a scientific fact that can’t be disproven.
He added that the Church’s teaching on gender and sexuality has never changed, and that the new document, Dignitas Infinita, hasn’t stated anything new.
CatholicVote reported in early April that the document focuses on human dignity and reaffirms Church teaching on abortion, sex-change surgery, gender theory, and surrogacy.
Coyne added that the Church still welcomes everyone, and that the document is not “coming out of a place of hatred or bigotry against folks.”
“You don’t have to pass a test to belong,” Coyne said. “We walk with each other. We accompany each other. We don’t leave each other; we try to grow together.”
He also told Connecticut Public that facing LGBT-related issues in the Church has moved him “more into a place of understanding and care.”
“It doesn’t cost me anything to accept you as you want to present yourself to me,” Coyne said. “I’m not going to get off on my high mighty horse, and all of a sudden say, ‘Well, I won’t accept that.’ I accept you as a person.”
He continued:
Male and female were created by God. There’s a certain dignity in that reality. How it’s lived out—and gender—is another thing … People who have gender dysphoria can choose to live that out in different ways. You could have a biological man who presents himself as a woman, but he’s still biologically a man.
